Paul Mitchell’s Newcastle exit leaves Eddie Howe in position of maximum strength

Paul Mitchell’s declaration that Newcastle’s transfer policy was ‘not fit for purpose’ provoked a needless civil, and turf, war with the manager. Photograph: Serena Taylor/Newcastle/Getty Images

The table was all wrong. In retrospect it offered the first clue that lack of emotional intelligence would prove central to Paul Mitchell’s undoing at Newcastle.

It was early last September when reporters were invited to St James’ Park to meet the club’s then newish sporting director. As Mitchell strode into the windowless Sir Bobby Robson suite and took his seat at the head of a very long rectangular table he neglected to notice that journalists at the opposite end were isolated from the conversation.